


Cubicles

by vampiric



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Christmas, Frerard, M/M, Office AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-29 20:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3910030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampiric/pseuds/vampiric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas time and the office Gerard works in is holding a Secret Santa gift exchange.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

White collars, perfect ties, papers stacked neatly together.. Anything office-related made Gerard yawn. He would honestly love to work on cartoons or painting or anything other than this. His mind was creative and he truly felt very condemned under the strict organization that his work setting enforced. Gerard constantly found himself sketching on important documents and having to make special trips to the lobby in order to find some white-out that would get rid of any trace of originality in the workspace. He was taught from the very beginning that art has no place in the business world, and that was that.

Gerard sighed deeply as he clicked the 'Print' button on his monitor. He was in charge of making hundreds and hundreds of copies of whatever his boss threw at him every day, and today it was fliers for the toy drive that his local community center held each year. Gerard had nearly forgotten that it was winter, which meant that Christmas was coming soon and he would be forced to attend the annual Christmas party at work. The parties held in the office were always guaranteed to be tedious and full of drunk coworkers that would end up later denying that they were as drunk as they were. As Gerard thought about the terrible Christmas spirit in the office, he mindlessly sketched an elf with sharp teeth and angry eyes. _Shit,_ he thought. He was drawing on the draft of the office's Christmas party announcement flier that was soon to be printed. _Now I've gotta go find some white-out..._ He flipped the paper over and stuffed it into his desk drawer so that no one would find it and yell at him. Gerard pulled himself up from his chair and trudged toward the elevator where he would spend an uncomfortable few minutes standing around and waiting to be transported to the lobby of the building.

"Hey," Greeted the familiar voice of the man working at the front desk.  
"Hey." Gerard replied, scratching his head. "I need some--"  
"White-out?" The other dark-haired man finished his sentence for him, grabbing a small bottle from the counter and handing it over to Gerard. "You can keep it this time, I'll buy some more later."  
"Uh.. Thanks." Gerard was always awkward in situations like these, but he was slightly flattered that the man had recognized him and what he was constantly coming to the lobby for. Then again, anyone would remember Gerard if they saw him several times a day as this guy had. He was sure he wasn't anything special, and--  
"No problem, man." His thoughts were interupted by the other who waved at Gerard as he was making his way back to the elevator. Gerard smiled and nearly crashed into the woman coming out of the elevator when he stepped in.

\----

"Listen up, everybody," The manager had began loudly in the middle of the office. "You all know the annual Christmas party that we hold here, correct?" Several people nodded. "Well this year, we're doing something special. We'll be holding a Secret Santa gift exchange. Now, there are some rules that come with, and I want everyone to...." Gerard had stopped listening after a while and was now consumed by his own thoughts. He never really interacted with anyone in this place, so it would be pretty difficult for whoever had to be his Secret Santa to actually know who he was. He knew everyone else's names, but he was sure no one knew his. He was nameless here, more of an observer. But he didn't mind very much. In fact, he enjoyed not being known. His thoughts were abruptly haulted by his manager shouting his name.  
"Mr. Way!" He called. "It's your turn to draw a name." Gerard's eyes widened and he reached into the bucket of folded papers that was held in front of him. He drew one and peeked at the name after unfolding it. Frank Iero. Gerard thought he knew all of his colleagues, but... He didn't know who Frank Iero was. He had to find out one way or another, though.


	2. Chapter 2

Gerard was very nonchalant in attempting to find out exactly who it was that he had to buy a gift for this Christmas. He would look in the filing cabinets for information about each worker, glance at name tags when no one was watching.. Hell, he once went as far as yelling "Frank!" in a crowd of people to see if anyone looked back. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful and would have to transition into Phase 2 of finding out who his Secret Santa was. Well, Phase 2 was honestly just asking around, but he liked to say it in a way that made him sound like a cool secret agent or something. Anyway, he was about to ask the person working in the cubicle to the right of him if they knew who Frank was when he was interrupted once more by his boss.  
"Excuse me, everyone." He began. "This is Mr. Iero. He used to work in the lobby, but due to some slight changes, he's been moved." Gerard had stopped listening again, but suddenly something rang a bell. Mr. Iero, Mr. Iero... Hey, wasn't that Frank's last name? Did he finally discover who his Secret Santa was? His head shot up from his desk and his eyes grew wide as he caught a glimpse of the man his boss had been introducing to everyone. It was the same person who'd been giving him white-out this whole time! The pretty one who worked in the lobby and always smiled at Gerard. How had he not known his name before now? God, Gerard was a moron sometimes. He realized that he'd been caught up in his own thoughts and quickly snapped himself out of it, listening to what his boss had to say. Wait, his boss was leaving! And Frank.. Why was he walking over to Gerard? No, no.. He wasn't walking over to Gerard, he was walking over to the cubicle to the left of him. Was this how it was going to be for the rest of the time they both worked there? Well, whatever happened, Gerard didn't care. He'd found who he had to buy a gift for, so now it was time to get to know the guy.

\----

It had been a week before Gerard found the right time to talk to Frank. Actually, any time would have been right, but Gerard had just been too intimidated by the other man. He felt inferior to Frank, despite the fact that he was a few inches taller and built generally broader. Maybe it was the fact that he was being forced into social interaction, or maybe it was the fact that Frank was at least 100 times more attractive than Gerard was. But anyway, none of that mattered anymore. In order to get the proper gift, Gerard had to make an effort to push his own worries aside. He straightened the collar of his white button-up shirt and cleared his throat before rolling his chair a few inches over. He was a good  
distance away from Frank, but still close enough to where they could speak at a normal volume.  
"Hey, um.." Gerard's heart practically skipped a beat when his new 'neighbor' looked over at him. "Umm.. Uh, I was wondering if you.. It's Frank, right? Your name? Anyway, um.. Do you know where I could, um.." He desperately was trying to think of something that would reveal bits about Frank's personality. "Do you know where the bathroom is?" Gerard mentally punched himself in the face for that one, but he tried to make it look like he really meant to ask the question. Frank's look was one of either confusion or sympathy, but Gerard couldn't quite tell.  
"Yeah, it's uh.." Frank turned and gestured down the hall behind them. "Right over there. I think there's a sign somewhere near it if you.. Get lost. Or something."  
Gerard cringed and nodded, getting up. He was now forced to use the restroom. Great.

\----

A few days after the bathroom incident, it was time for attempt #2 at finding out what Frank's ideal gift would be. Gerard had spent a lot of time thinking about his approach this time, because he wanted to be sure that this conversation was nothing like the last one. He'd finally told himself that he was going to ask Frank out for coffee; it was much easier to talk about casual things when you weren't dressed like a lawyer.  
"Hey, Frank." Gerard greeted his coworker when he arrived in the office. "Um, I was wondering.. Do you want to uh.." Suddenly he went into a sort of panic mode. Why did this always happen to him? "Do you want to go t-take a piss with me?"  
_Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...._ This was _not_ how friends were supposed to be made. Gerard was ruining his own life.. He would have to move away after this, find a new job.. Possibly even change his name. Did he look more like a James or a To--  
"Uh.. Well, I don't really have to.. Go right now, but I'd rather be in there than on this computer all day." Frank gave Gerard a genuine smile, and things felt much more comfortable somehow. The two walked off to the bathroom where they stayed for a few moments. They hadn't said much to each other, but it was alright. This was the very odd start of something new.

\----

Attempt #3 at getting Frank to talk was going to be it. This was going to be the success that Gerard had been waiting for. He was going to take Frank out during their lunch break, for real this time.  
"Hi, Frank." Gerard swallowed thickly and wiped his hands on his pants. "Do you wanna, um.. Go to lunch with me today?"  _Yes!_   He'd finally done it! In his mind, an audience of thousands was applauding him at this very moment.  
Frank grinned and nodded quickly. "I'd love to." He kept smiling for a while after that.

It was time for them to leave when Gerard asked Frank, "Where do you want to go?"  
Frank had shrugged. "I'm cool with wherever."  
_God damn it, Frank.._ Gerard thought. He hated when this happened. He had to come up with a plan fast, though, or else Frank would probably go to lunch with someone else. "What about coffee?" It was the first thing that came to his mind, and he was mentally praying that it was what Frank wanted.  
"Alright, sounds cool."  
Sounds.. _Cool?_   Gerard sighed quietly. "You sure?"  
"Yeah, I was hoping you'd say that, actually."

\----

When Gerard got home from work that night, he wrote down everything he knew about Frank Iero. Call him creepy, but it was a necessity if he wanted the guy to be happy with his gift. He'd found out that Frank liked The Misfits, Black Flag, The Beastie Boys, and several other bands that Gerard also listened to. Frank apparently played guitar and wanted to be in a band, but he didn't have the right funds at the moment which was why he worked in the office. He wanted to get a lot of tattoos, and he was born on Halloween. Fucking _Halloween,_ how cool was that? He went to a Catholic school when he was younger, he broke a shit ton of his bones... He was a really interesting guy, honestly.

Upon reviewing the things he knew about Frank, Gerard realized that he still didn't know what gift to buy. What the hell was he going to do? Christmas was in three days, for Christ's sake. He was going to have to do something. Fast.


	3. Chapter 3

It was 1:28 AM, Christmas was tomorrow (or today, depending on how one chose to perceive the time), and Gerard still didn't have Frank's gift. He decided it was time to head to the local store and browse around in case something caught his eye.

Once he got there, Gerard went up and down nearly every aisle before he saw it.. "It" was a huge bottle of white-out. Now, if one didn't know the origin of Frank and Gerard's relationship, they would be very confused as to why he would buy such a strange thing for his new friend. But then, if one took the time to ask, they would discover that Gerard was constantly using up all of Frank's white-out, so it would be unbelievably charming and clever for him to buy this for Frank. Gerard was the master of gift giving, and this was the greatest $3.84 thing he'd ever done in his whole 26 years of living.

\----

When the Christmas party came around, it was 7:30 PM. Gerard looked nicer than usual since he'd actually taken the time to shower. If he was going to impress Frank and everyone else, he had to smell somewhat decent.

After arriving at the office, Gerard glanced around. He held the wrapped cardboard box containing his ingenious gift tightly in one arm, making sure he didn't drop it and risk damaging the perfect wrapping. He'd chosen a blue paper with little brown Dachshund puppies on it to wrap Frank's present with, since he'd remembered Frank talking about having a lot of dogs in his apartment. Gerard smiled to himself. He was going to be the Office King after tonight. No one could possibly outshine him once they saw the present. This was finally the moment his life would turn around after all the years he went through of shitty treatment from shitty people. Gerard would be like the new Jesus. Shit, he was so _cool._

It had been around 45 minutes after the party started when the boss declared that it was time to exchange gifts. Gerard grinned maniacally, probably frightening a few of his coworkers. But it didn't matter; nothing did anymore. He was about to be the most popular guy in the whole building.

Gerard strut over to Frank, holding his somewhat evil grin right where it was. He raised his eyebrows as he placed the box delicately into Frank's open palms, beginning to snicker at his own utter brilliance. He cocked his head slightly as he saw Frank giggling a bit too.

"Looks like we were each other's Secret Santas." Frank laughed. Gerard's eyes widened slightly and his smile practically melted right off of his face. He didn't know why, but he felt like this was going to ruin everything he lived for.

Frank handed him a small box covered neatly in Batman-patterned wrapping paper and he squinted before lifting the cover of it. _Holy shit..._ Gerard thought. He pulled out a large bottle of white-out; the same one he'd gotten for Frank. He looked up to see that Frank was holding up his own bottle. He started laughing so hard that he caught the attention of nearly everyone in the office. Gerard's eyes shot around the room as his friend was causing this scene, and he couldn't think to do anything but laugh with him. Soon, everyone was laughing once they realized what had happened.

\----

After the party, nothing really changed with how everyone else saw Gerard. He wasn't paid any more attention to than usual, and he still remained somewhat unknown in general throughout the office. Well, Frank of course was closer to Gerard now that they were actually friends, but no one else even knew Gerard's name.

Despite the fact that Frank was the only person who really ever acknowledged him, Gerard wouldn't have wanted it any other way.


End file.
